The local 2016 campaign begins!

Though it seems like we just wrapped up voting in the 2014 midterms — and even though there are still city councils to elect all around the area on April 7 — a few candidates for next year’s local elections are gearing up already.

That includes State’s Attorney Jerry Brady and Circuit Clerk Bobby Spears, who are holding a joint fundraiser from 5 to 7 p.m. tonight at Brewer’s Distributing, 2421 Townline Road.

Will those two offices be contested? Brady fought off a strong challenge from Republican Frank Ierulli in 2012, and Spears was unchallenged.

Interestingly, all countywide offices were unchallenged last time, and frankly both parties did a poor job in terms of their volume of candidate recruiting for county offices — only one contested County Board race on each side of the aisle.

If this is the start of the campaign, look forward to an interesting next year and a half!